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tv   [untitled]    December 20, 2012 6:30am-7:00am PST

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department who is over that department and wendy still from the adult probation department has been a strong advocate of these programs so we are thrilled to have that in place, and one of the things i honestly i would never see and be able to tell you in the penal code there is a section for the batter's intervention program and people charged with domestic violence. the same almost penal code called for child abuse 52 week program and never existed and only one county in california doing it and that was san diego. we came before the public safety committee with the board of supervisors and said we want a 52 week child abuse intervention proom and the board of supervisors said "could we get in trouble for not having this?" . it's in the penal code. we believe we should have it and
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they said we should also and they asked the mayor's department work with us and i saw paul henderson come in and a shout on the to him and we're going to meet at 5:00 o'clock every friday in his office until we get this program going, so the department of public health and the probation department and the mayor department has made this happened and we have the first person hired and the first group of people screened to go through the program and i am thrilled to tell you san francisco is one of two counties in the state doing this program. we are gathering data from the beginning and we will have good information to share with you what is going on, so these are three major things that happened in the last year that i am most proud of the work that family violence council has done and
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all of the community agencies have come together. thank you very much. >> so i will touch on some of the trends and recommendations that we're seeing from the domestic violence perspective. domestic violence has been worked on much longer in san francisco at a policy level and you will see that reflected in the numbers, but again when you combine elder abuse and child abuse and domestic violence it's san francisco's most reported crime, family violence. so you will see that still the majority of the calls that are coming in -- thank you -- come in to the community. as many of you know, and as the president of the police commission said it's rarely the first time by the time the police are called or there is a criminal justice response and not everyone wants
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a criminal justice response so we are proud to be part of a community that speaks over 60 languages; that operates crisis l shelters and legal services for over 30 years and we are very proud of that. we are very proud of the probably 20 years, but certainly the last 10, of really working closely with the criminal justice system as well, so when you look at the number of calls -- i don't think this is on my slide, but i will tell you the number of calls that come in on the crisis line 24/7 approaches 25,000 a year, so those are people looking for counseling, shelters, services, information for their children and referrals to our other partner agencies so we're very excited about that. you can see it here, 21,000. you will also see on this slide that it says
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cps but actually what it means is the child -- oh karen i can just picture her, child support services so we want to thank karen. i don't know if she is here but i want to give you a shout out because you see the increase there and don't believe that domestic violence has increased that much in san francisco, but what has happened they are being so careful about working with single parents that are trying to receive support for their children but need to remain safe as well, so they're screening -- they have a special case load where domestic violence is involved. they have a special case worker who is a gentleman who i will tell you is not afraid to call a parent and not supporting their child to tell them just what the law is and what is expected of them,
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so we are seeing huge leadership from this agency and this is where you're seeing the 202 percent increase, but if you look you will see that the crisis lines, shelter services, general statistics, and cases received are still climbing in san francisco. we do not believe that is because there is more domestic violence. we believe it is because the community is starting to be aware and trust all of our systems, everybody in this room, so lisa at 911, and all of the police department and everybody who's working on this we are gaining the trust of the survivors of their communities. in a post 9/11 world we saw a real drop and chilling effect in victims being willing to come forward. it was another big act of courage as many of you know just naming domestic violence
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or perhaps making a change in how you're violence is living is a huge courageous move, but to call when at that point they were afraid it was another huge courageous move so i feel both the state and our diverse and wonderful city has had a real challenge and i think we're finally getting back up to where we need to be. we need folks to know they can trust everyone in the room, every system that will come through for them, and i think this is reflected in our report. >> thank you. >> all right. i am really hoping that all the wonderful things that are being said about domestic violence will be said about elder abuse in the next few years. as a field elder abuse prevention lags behind domestic violence by 20 years and that's a shame because elders are the fastest growing segment of the population and a
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thousand people turning 65 everyday in the country and san francisco likes to be first in everything and aging is no different. we have the unique population and the highest percentage of senior citizens in an urban area in california and we know many will develop some form of dementia so we have a very vulnerable population, so i want to touch on the numbers in the slide and we see in 2011 we had 6,000 reports and we have 512 and these cases are 100 i don't want to spend too much time delving into the numbers because they're there to look at with better explanation around them, but i want to highlight a few things that are important to our city. working in the elder
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abuse center we see -- i really want to take the opportunity to thank inspector and the captain for their amazing work and say we need more bodies to help them. there's my little plug, but it's really true. it's a urgent situation and many elders pass away before they see justices. they're complicated cases and require a high level of expertise to see what happened, to build a case and presented to the da so they can win and they're complicated cases and we bump up against many obstacles as we seek justice and we are a partner for better results for the citizens here in san francisco. i want to take a brief moment and mention the law enforcement elder abuse act if you don't mind. this act was developed for all of california law enforcement and it is a step up
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from the pocket cards that we usually hand out at training and penal code 368. it has a lot of information about resources in california. it's at the fingertips of any officer that would like to download it. it's free and we have postcards how to access it as well. i am happy to take any questions or anything. we can move on to the recommendations from the family violence council. >> we're just going to say for the next year the family violence council asked all of the public agencies to give us recommendations that they want to hold their own department accountable to and we came up with our own. the recommendations are up there and listed them genericically but for me the exciting thing in the last reports when we did the report the first year and emily knows started calling around asking for data there were
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many, many calls back because we're not used to gathering data like this. i can say -- i think for my co-chairs this third year it was a lot smoother process, and we are able to get data much more quickly and very real data, and so we hope to continue in the next year and we're going to add the sheriff's department in this to gather more data from the sheriff's department and also from the san francisco unified public schools because we have so many programs in the schools working on family violence issues and we have one section in the report so the wellness centers and we're going to get data for and at the department of public health are looking at gathering data from the public health system so we are hopeful in next year's report we have information from all of the community clinics and san francisco general hospital when people come in and talk about domestic violence and
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child abuse and elder abuse we are able to capture that data so that is one of the major things we're looking for in the next report. >> the next recommendation is increasing in joint trainings and we're going to add the sheriff's department in this to gather more data from the sheriff's department and also from the san francisco unified public schools because we have so many programs in the schools working on family violence issues and we have one section in the report so the wellness centers and we're going to get data for and at the department of public health are looking at gathering data from the public health system so we
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are hopeful in next year's report we have information from all of the community clinics and san francisco general hospital when people come in and talk about domestic violence and child abuse and elder abuse we are able to capture that data so that is one of the major things we're looking for in the next report. >> the next recommendation is increasing in joint trainings one of the recommendations is for 911 dispatchers. they have new codes now and we want to make sure they know how to code, and the new codes around child and elder abuse in particular. >> i can see we're going to be moving around a lot. a fact sheet that talks about all family violence together in san francisco, so we can paint the picture in a moment's notice so people don't have to big through a full report as interesting as it is. we would like to have a fact sheet done this year that would really paint the picture
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how serious family violence is and how much progress we have made in san francisco. >> let next recommendation to is have a joint outreach campaign. we had success in our individual fields for these groups and this year we would like to collaborate and have a family violence approach here in the city. >> and we also want to keep supporting -- we believe that the best work that is done is when it's done in the multi-disciplinary capacity. all of us working together. not one particular agency or group can do it alone so to continue the support what i think the three agencies have really valued to support the work of the domestic violence consortium and the agencies that are membered, to support the work of the elder abuse forensic center and unique and with financial and policy support towards it
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and i am here actually to thank everyone for the support of the new childrens' advocacy center that we will be opening next year in the bay view with that program and we are thrilled about this come to you next year and what we can do by bringing together the three entities and one of the recommendations is to keep these agencies going. >> san francisco has success through the community and the sheriff's department and having services available to the victims and survivors of the perpetrators they're working with and the transition of sunni and happy to bring this to you so the victims can
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receive services in all three of our disciplines and restorative justice through the probation department and we are excited about that and we know we have the talent and leadership for that. >> the last one is from the victim's advocate department and they're very much strong supporters in all the work that we do and there was a press conference in the bay view and talking about this and we utilize this for domestic violence and child abuse but there is a section for children that witness community violence so they can access the victim's fund and we haven't gotten the word out enough so we are training our advocates that exist in the seven agencies in the city and experts of domestic violence and community violence from zero to five so we hope to utilize that fund. children are eligible up to $5,000 of
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therapy and counseling and we hope to tell you next year how many children access that fund. >> thank you for your time. we are really honored to be here and present to you to both commissions tonight. >> thank you very much. i would like to commend the department and especially stacey young this year to pull together the report. it's not easy coordinating all of the statistics and particularly with different computer systems and different department are on fiscal years versus calendar years and recognizing cases don't move easily through a year to year basis and keep track of that so thank you to all of the agencies involved. >> we could not have done this without the department and commission on the status of women. there are staff and they support this work everyday. >> don't go anywhere. the commissioner has a question for you.
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>> i just wanted -- my take away from that really comprehensive presentation was also part of why we're here together today it's just a recination that we don't operate in silos, that we're in the same conversation as criminal justice family as addressing violence in the community and part of the reason we're talking. it's so powerful to see all of you and the benefit for the elder abuse folks and see some of the gains kathy baxter has made in 30 years and getting you to a place that you're opening the advocacy center and i want to thank you for your leadership and success. you're really showing us a powerful model. >> i just want to under score the comments by ms. gwen hoping that in the next few years we see the same progress of elder abuse as domestic violence. i can tell you from my work in estate planning and probate and
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conservatorships often it's the people closest to the elder who fail to recognize the proper boundaries as the elder ages, and that the elder's assets are for their support and care and i really think they're a strenuous outreach campaign and public education campaign in that regard is in order, and the other aspect of this that is also delicate is that the family members who are closest and who often are the ones that take advantage are the ones there present supporting so it's a very difficult balance to strike, and maintain the support with the respect. >> commissioner. >> i would just like to echo how fortunate we are to have the women work with the commission for years but since we are giving shout outs i would like
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to shout out to the police department and the chief and i think it was a year ago when you created this unit and housed them on the premier floor on the hall of justice and we fought for that and without that these people wouldn't be working in unity today and i want to thank the police department and the police commission for that opportunity. >> please call the next portion of line item three please. commissioner chan. okay. >> thank you for that presentation. i appreciate it. and the approach to all of these and looking at in a comprehensive way and the 55 page family violence council 2011 report is really impressiv3
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test test
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>> she will present the district attorney's office on the review of san francisco rates for domestic violence. >> we flipped a coin. have you to be here this evening in front of of these commissions to talk a little bit about our work in the district attorney's office as it relates to domestic violence. as many of you know we have a vertical domestic violence unit as it relates to misdemeanor and felony prosecution. domestic violence notoriously difficult to prosecute requires building meaningful,
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deep relationship with the victim so they will have the confidence in us to project them to the court proceedings and try to rebuild her family. it is a crucial element of what we do we are committed . to maintaining that. we have six attorneys to handle all misdemeanor and felony domestic violence cases. santa clara also has vertical misdemeanor and felony prosecution approach. in the unit that we have, it handles about 270 cases a month. that is about a 100% increase in the last two years. we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of cases that we are handling as
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an office without increasing our staff. we are also seeing an increase in the number of cases not resolving through plea bargain, that number is 92%. we are seeing dramatic increase in our work in the area of domestic violence, that 92% is just in the last year, calendar year 2011-12. santa clara as i mentioned that has a vertical misdemeanor and felony unit has hermetically more staff, both support staff and attorneys. they have over 306 two percent more support staff and 60 percent more attorneys. we have not had dedicated victim advocates, parlegals,
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support staff. the attorneys carry the burden of building the relationship with the woman. they are seeing an increase in caseload and is becoming exceptionally difficult to maintain that meaningful relationship. we have seen a change in the public offenders approach to those cases moving away from a vertical dv unit spreading those cases to all attorneys. they have gone from having two misdemeanor public defenders to 12, further exacerbating the workload challenges that we are seeing now particularly in the misdemeanor domestic violence prosecution. as you may or may not know, the public defender's office handles about half of the cases that comes through the criminal justice system.
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the remainder is handled by conflict attorneys or private attorneys retained by the defendant. we handle 100 percent of everything prosecuted. in addition to handling 100 percent of the cases we have responsibility for areas outside of the public defender's purview such as white-collar prosecution, victim assistance, criminal investigation. those are not obligations shared by defense counsel. we continue to push hard; we are doing good work but we are under resourced. a the district attorney has raised is concerned with the mayor and supervisor chu, and prepared a budget supplemental that we hope will alleviate some of the challenges that we are facing in the near term.
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i will be happy to answer any questions that you have. >> i hae a question. i read today that -- applied for grant money for investigators and prosecutors in the domestic violence arena. have you heard anything about that? >> we are always applying for grants. we just received one in conjunction with the departmental staff to help english deficient victims. when the case is coming to the police department the police evaluate the danger of possible death for the victim and allows for a portion of attorney positions and advocate but not investigator. >> when the victims are initially on board with the prosecution after the arrest, there is a substantial majority of the time when the picture
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changes his or her mind, can you tell us about the difficulties that prosecutors deal with in that situation and what support they are getting from witness victim advocates and those prosecutions? >> this is really a very volatile experience. generally somebody's robbed or suffered some other type of crime; the actors often committed by a stranger. in domestic violence by its nature is committed by a person that they deeply loved. we are asked to navigate to personal relationships. one of the huge challenges we face are delays in bringing cases to trial. we have three attorneys. we have to finish one trial before we can begin the next. we have extended exposure to their batterer and maybe change your mind about wanting to proceed. with changes in the law it is
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extremely difficult for us to continue with the prosecution without evicting that is interested in proceeding. in the past with call police officer and the relay what information they took at the scene that is no longer acceptable as evidence. without the vacant you often don't have the ability to put together the evidence to persuade a jury. it is critical for us to keep the victim engaged in the process, one, for his or her safety but ultimately to secure an outcome that will protect them in the long-term. to do that our office, and jean should be commended for this, requires that we contact every single victim personally and we do that the attorney. jean goes to the file, gets a round of calls, she assigns them to the attorney, they give around calls, and we try to maintain the level of communication with the victim and bring them